From Fox Searchlight:

FANTASTIC MR. FOX director/co-writer/producer Wes Anderson sat down with Fox Searchlight’s own lovely Stephanie Allen, the basis of a video series in which Wes discusses various aspects of how FANTASTIC MR. FOX came to fruition. And the film’s now been nominated for two Academy Awards! Watch all eight videos here.

Wes On Author Roald Dahld (1/8)

More after the break…
Wes on the Characters and Actors (2/8)

Wes on What Makes Mr. Fox Fantastic (3/8)

Wes on the Film’s Art Direction (4/8)

Wes on the Music of Mr. Fox (5/8)

Wes on the Special Effects (6/8)

Wes on Directing Animation (7/8)

Wes on His Style and Artistic Vision (8/8)

(the Wes parody is third)

(not-so) Bonus: a harsh take on Salinger — and Wes

Our favorite Wes parody is still the McCain ad.

via /Film, Yankee Racer Magnus Rushlee

via IMPAwards

This morning it was announced that Fantastic Mr. Fox received two Academy Award nominations, one for Best Animated Feature and another for Best Original Score. This is the second nomination Wes has received, after receiving a Best Original Screenplay nomination with Owen Wilson in 2002. But what are Fantastic Mr. Fox’s chances come Oscar time? We’ll take a look at that and get Wes’ reaction to the nominations after the break.

Along with Fantastic Mr. Fox, four films were nominated for Best Animated Feature, including Coraline directed by Wes’ The Life Aquatic collaborator Henry Selick, Disney’s The Princess and the Frog, Ireland’s The Secret of Kells, and Pixar’s Up. As we predicted, Up received a nomination in this category and a nomination for Best Picture. Assuming that Fantastic Mr. Fox and Up are the front-runners in the category (which we can), what this could mean for Fantastic Mr. Fox is a chance to win.

Voters for the Best Animated Feature category, unlike the Best Picture category, are required to see all five nominees.  This means that voters will definitely have to see Up, and what could happen is that those voters to decide to vote for Up in the Best Picture category and go with Fantastic  Mr. Fox in the Animated category.

Finally, AwardsDaily has a round-up of a lot of nominee reactions given to the media, and here’s Wes’.

I am very honored to have received an Oscar nomination for Fantastic Mr. Fox.  Roald Dahl’s classic story has been one of my favorite books since I first learned to read, and it was an amazing experience to work with my many, many very skilled collaborators and bring it to life as a stop-motion film! I would like to congratulate Alexandre Desplat, who wrote our wonderful score, for his nomination as well. – Wes Anderson, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Animated Feature

Let’s hope Wes wins, because hes’ getting pretty good at acceptance speeches.

It’s official:

Animated Film:
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up

I have seen 1, 2 and 5 – excellent competition. Good luck, Wes!

Also:

Best Score
Avatar
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up

via Vulture

An interesting article today from The A.V. Club on the philosophies of some of Bill Murray’s most famous characters, including Herman Blume from Rushmore.

The asceticism of Scrooged and Rushmore
As practiced by certain sects of Hinduism, Jainists, and even Christians who reject the ideas of “prosperity theology” (and actually, you know, listen to Jesus), asceticism involves a conscious abstaining from worldly pleasures in favor of focusing on one’s spiritual life. While he doesn’t end up wandering the desert in sackcloth eating only what may fall into his bowl, Murray does arrive at these basic tenets of asceticism in two of his most popular roles: In Scrooged, Murray’s Frank Cross is dedicated to success no matter the cost to his basic humanity, until a night of being tormented by spirits—who are really just manifestations of his own conscience—opens his eyes to the simpler joys of “putting a little love in your heart” and helping your fellow man. In Rushmore, Murray’s Herman Blume is a self-made tycoon with his own multimillion-dollar business and the lifestyle to match, yet he’s crippled by ennui, and despairing over the alienation he feels toward his family. Pursuit of a truer definition of love eventually tears his world apart—and wrecks him both financially and physically—but by movie’s end, Blume has undergone a total spiritual reawakening, and seems to have found happiness at last in his total unburdening.

Read the full article at The A.V. Club.

From Richard Brody’s blog at the New Yorker:

I remembered this passage from the F. Scott Fitzgerald story “The Freshest Boy”:

He had contributed to the events by which another boy was saved from the army of the bitter, the selfish, the neurasthenic and the unhappy. It isn’t given to us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world. They will not be cured by our most efficacious drugs or slain with our sharpest swords.

—and it occurred to me that more than everything else—more than all the things in his stories that I have been inspired by and imitated and stolen to the best of my abilities—THIS describes my experience of the works of J. D. Salinger.

So, a little less elegant, a little less celebrating of the collaboration, but we’re in the thick of it people! Let’s see some hustle! (Or rather let’s not, as most likely you’re not an Academy member and even if you were, ballots were due last week.)

via AwardsDaily

Full information and Blu-Ray art afer the jump.

The DVD will include:

• From Script to Screen feature,
• A Still Life (Puppet Animation) feature
• A Beginner’s Guide to Whack-Bat

The Blu-Ray will include:

• A DVD Copy of the film
• A Digital Copy of the film
• From Script to Screen feature
•  A Still Life (Puppet Animation) feature
• A Beginner’s Guide to Whack-Bat
• A 6-part Making Mr. Fox Fantastic documentary

“The Look Of Fantastic Mr. Fox”

 ”From Script To Screen”

 ”The Puppet Makers”

“Still Life (Puppet Animation)”

“The Cast”, “Bill And His Badger”)

• Fantastic Mr. Fox: The World Of Roald Dahl

You can see the full size cover art at DVD Active, and you can pre-order the DVD or Blu-Ray at Amazon.